Week 45: Artistic Nostalgic

November 9, 2016 – The toughest part of this week’s challenge? Choosing what nostalgic thing to shoot! Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE old stuff. Nostalgic stuff. Stuff with history. I had an endless supply of what to shoot for Artistic Nostalgic, but when I found myself parked beneath a dinosaur on a recent road trip in my ’48 Ford, well, I knew I most definitely had my shot.

Week 45: Artistic Nostalgic

Use nostalgic as your inspiration this week.

Long for the moments we want recapture. The good times

Rarely do I edit my photos beyond a slight adjustment, but this time I wanted a nostalgic look, so adjusted the hue to get the teal-like shade of the sky so common in vintage postcards, and darkened the highlights to pop the Brontosaurus from the background.

So these crazy dinosaurs….

You may have seen them in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, or on Huell Howser’s Visiting, or any other of a number of commercials, music videos, or films. If you frequent the 10 between Palm Springs and LA, you’ve seen them, rising up on the north side of the freeway, lurking behind a now closed restaurant–the reason the dinos came into being in the first place. Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor and artist, Claude Bell, first started building Dinny (the Brontosaurus) in the ’60s to draw attention to his Wheel Inn Restaurant, creating the beast from I-10 salvage. The creature took him eleven years to finish, and once he finished Dinny, he began Mr. Rex.

No way I could pass by the attraction while behind the wheel of my ’48 Ford and not stop for a photo op.

The Road Trip…

Over the last couple of years, Bondorella hasn’t been on any long trips, mainly just around town jaunts and Sunday drives, but when a fellow Moto-Girl asked if I could bring her out to Pioneertown for a commercial shoot, I thought, why not? I needed a good adventure with my girl, so loaded our 1936 Harley-Davidson VLD in the back and set out on our 100 mile journey. (Ignore my sagging headliner, please…)

The truck ran like a champ, although some of the steep climbs certainly made her temperature climb. Funny how much we take new cars and the ease of travel for granted. In a new car, you don’t have to think about overheating. Don’t have to think about anything, really. Driving a classic you have to be mindful of everything. In hindsight, I should have gone slower on the climbs, and pulled over to let her cool down when the gauge crept too high.

Even so, we made it to Yucca Valley.

And Saturday, had a blast blazing down the road with a bunch of pre-1960s choppers and old trucks loaded with motorcycles for the shoot. The two-lane highways out in the high desert suit Bondorella. Maybe she’ll have to stay a while.